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Here’s what happened when we visited this years’ #TFM16

Last week some of the team at here boxChilli ventured out of Hampshire and into the country’s capital for the Technology for Marketing 2016 event. When we eventually got there, thanks to traffic and an abundance of one way roads that made finding somewhere to park near impossible, we found ourselves in Olympia hall surrounded by like-minded marketing professionals bursting with creativity and ideas.

It was my first time attending a large expo, and first walking into the hall was almost overwhelming as you could see hundreds of stalls packed into the venue, all offering the opportunity to learn more about our ever developing industry. Diving straight into the venue we set about finding out what the latest technology in marketing has to offer, and in search for a few free gifts along the way.

Whilst the event was largely dominated by the giants of digital marketing such as SEO, E-commerce and content companies, there was also a selection of other businesses. The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing was an exhibitor we found that runs boot camp training courses for all your marketing desires; such as data analytics, or a simpler booster course. SEO and content performance platform Pi Datametrics was another exhibit that was a stand out for the event, who educated us on their game changing software.

Not only was the event packed with brilliant companies and entrepreneurs, they had fantastic freebies too. Our favourite was commerce marketing automation company Bronto, who were handing out inflatable dinosaurs, and also were a great business – but ultimately it was dinosaur which won us over. Bronto the dinosaur, having battled and survived the A3 rush hour traffic, made the journey back to boxChilli and is now living comfortably in his new home.

One of the stand out experiences of the event had to be the Dotmailer competition stand; the email marketing automation platform had set up an air tunnel for volunteers to enter and then catch as many balls as possible, or at least try to. Our SEO director Matt had a go and managed to come in 2nd place overall after catching 102. You can find the video over on our Instagram page HERE

The event continued to surprise us not only with the level of innovation it presented but for the entertaining elements found around the venue. Mike, our SEO assistant, bumped into Santa Claus, who uses an iPad nowadays for his naughty or nice list. Santa, I assume was attending to find how the latest marketing technology will help make Christmas more efficient than ever this year. Naturally we got a photo…

Overall it was an excellent experience that offered insight to the latest technology for both marketing enthusiasts and buyers. The event was a hub of creativity – something that was evident across the two day exhibit, encouraging everyone present to keep up with the fast paced, ever changing but exciting industry.

1 comment

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